Hillary Clinton's Historic Error Is Her Second Gaffe of the 2016 Election

On the second day of her Hard Choices book tour, Hillary Clinton compared the 2008 Democratic primary to the 1860 primary between "a senator from Illinois named Lincoln and a senator from New York named Seward." But Abraham Lincoln actually lost his Senate campaign to Stephen A. Douglas.

Clinton was appearing in Chicago with President Obama's former advisor Rahm Emanuel. The gaffe wouldn't have been so bad, but Clinton's story depended on the analogy:

A senator from Illinois ran against a senator from New York just as had happened way back with a senator from Illinois named Lincoln and a senator from New York named Seward. And it turned out the same way.

The gist of the story — both Seward and Clinton lost — is still accurate, but the error is getting the gaffe treatment. "Listen to Clinton’s gaffe here," wrote The Blaze. The Free Beacon went with the headline "Hillary's Historic Fail," leaving you to wonder if historic just means an error about history, or an error that will be remembered for ever. "At Wednesday's Rahm Emanuel-Hillary Clinton show for her book tour, there was another Hillary gaffe," wrote a local radio station.

The first gaffe, of course, was her claim that she and Bill were "dead broke" after leaving the White House. In the grand scheme of things, we think #HillaryIsSoPoor will live on longer than whatever "Hillary's History Facts" this inspires.

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.